Splice



' March 1', 1949.

v. c. J. PETERSON SPLICE Filed June 5, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet l mvzmonmvctwr Cid/Irina ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 1, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENTorsics SPLICE Vincent 0. 1. Peterson, Forty Fort, Pa., assignor toAmerican Chain 8: Cable Company, Inc., Bridgeport, Conn., a corporationof New York Application June 5, 1945, Serial No. 597,848

connecting ends thereof or in fastening an end to a standing part as,for instance, in the formation of a loop or eye.

Splicing constructions should be easy to fabricate, use reasonably smallsize fittings, and should develop the full strength of the rope. Splicesof the conventional kind either do not hold securely or cause adisturbance in the arrangement of the strands of which the rope is madeto such an extent that one of the strands is subjected to a greaterportion of the load that it would normally carry, causing it to part atless than the rated load of the rope.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide amethod and means of splicing a rope which is easy to apply. .7

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method andmeans for splicing rope which entails no substantial loss in flexibilityof a rope.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method andmeans for making rope splices which will not require too great anincrease in diameter at the splice.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method ofsplicing which will not sacrifice the initial strength of the rope.

Briefly, it is proposed to form a splice by winding the strands of arope around another rope and securing these strands in place in such amanner that tension will tend to lock the splice together. This willappear as the description proceeds.

\ after application of ferrules thereto;

Fig. 5 is a cross-section on the line 55 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal partial section similar to Fig. 4 aftercompletion of the splice;

2 Fig. 7 is a cross-section on the line 1-1 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 shows the first step of a modified method; Fig. 9 shows thesecond step of this method; Fig. 10 is a longitudinal partial section ofa completed splice; and

Fig. 11 is a cross-section on line I i--l i oi Fig. 8.

The present description is applied to the making of eyes, itbeingunderstood of course that the same technique can be employed in themaking of splices between the ends of ropes or the attachment of a ropeto an intermediate portion of another rope. Furthermore, although thegeneric term rope is used, it must be understood that what is meant is astranded structure which may be a strand, a rope formed of a number ofstrands or a cable stranded of individual ropes. Furthermore, thepresent invention is not limited to structures laid up for their entirelength. For instance, a braided structure can be used if it has a laidsection of sufficient length to permit formation of the describedsplice.

In Figs. 1-7, a rope l0 comprising a number a of strands H, which may belaid about a core i2,

is shown with its and strands unlaid, as a preliminary step in makings.splice. As shown, the core i2 is cut ofi at it.

The eye is formed by bringing the unlaid strands about the standing partor the rope with the laid portion closely adjacent thereto. The cut endis of the core is then close to the body of the rope as shown in Fig. 2.The strands are then wound about the standing part of the rope in such afashion that they lie within the valleys between the adjacent strands ofthe rope as shown in Fig. 3. They are then secured in place. This isdone in the shown form by the use of ferrules These ferrules may besecured in place by swaging or by simple pressing. The amount or swagingor pressing required is dependent to a certain extent upon the distanceapart of these ferrules;

' that is to say, if the outer ends of the two ferrules are quite closetogether, very heavy swaging may be necessary. On the other hand,ferrules separated by a distance or about one lay require considerablyless swaging. It will be appreciated, of course, that a single longferrule could be used. ,This, however, has the disadvantage of beingstill. when eyes of this nature are 3 used in slings, for example, it isoften desired that the sling be as flexible as possible so that, whenthe sling is used in a choker" hitch, it is free to bend right up to theeye.

In 9. splice made in this fashion the standing part of the rope is notdisturbed by operations such as tucking, which are required in ordinarysplicing methods. For this reason the standing part of the rope issubstantially unaffected by the splicing. The part of the rope which isunlald andwrapped about the standing part of the rope can be re-laidreadily to give equal tension to all of the strands, so that there is nodevelopment of excessive stress in any one strand. This is particularlytrue when preformed wire rope is used as the strands thereof naturallywind themselves about the standing part of the rope.

The principle upon which this type of splice holds is different fromthat obtaining in other types of splices. There are apparently twoactions which take place when tension is applied to this splice. In thefirst place, if the splice is imagined with the ferrule 14 in place, andthe ferrule l5 so loose as to permit slipping of the strands, tension onthe splice would cause the helically wrapped strands to snub the cableunderneath, hugging it and transmitting tension thereto somewhat in themanner of the cables in the U. S. Patent to Kellems, No. 2,164,278. Thestrands tend to unwind from the rope, which is one of the reasons forthe ferrule IS. A further action is engendered by the helicaldisposition of the unlaid strands about the body of the rope in thevalleys between the strands thereof as a result of this unwindingtendency. Unwinding cannot actually takeplace without the strandsclimbing out of the valleys in the rope body, which is prevented by theferrule l5, the result being a jamming of the strand against the ropebody. It will be appreciated, of course, that there must be a certainamount of resistance to movement of the strands relative to the rope bodgenerated by the compression of the ferrules, especially by ferrule [4,in order to bring this action into play. This resistance in itself takespart of the load. If the swaging or pressing is extensive. it will takea considerable portion of the load.

In Figs. 8 to 11 a modified formof the present invention is shown, inwhich an eye is formed in a slightly diiferentmanner. In the practice ofthis form of the invention, the rope 20, comprising strands 2| laidabout-a core 22, is split into two parts, as shown in Fig. 8, byunlaying half of the strands from the core for a suificient distance toform the eye required. The core is then cut at 23, and the strands 2l-Bwhich surrounded the cut off portion of the core are unlald from eachother and helically disposed The strands 60 about the standing part ofthe rope. 2l-A are relaid about the core and strands 2 I-B, starting atthe unstranded end, forming the eye 24. The ends of strands Zl-A arethen unlaid and helically wrapped about. the standing part, in themanner shown in Fig. 10. The strands 2l-A and 2l-B are thus disposedabout the standing part of the rope in the same manner as those ofFigures 1 to 3. A single ferrule, or, preferably, two ferrules 25 and 26are then pressed,

swaged or otherwise secured to the helically wrapped strands asdescribed in connection with the first form.

As a further modified form, it is possible to modify the form shown inFigs. 1 to 7 by inserting the ends of the strands under the strands ofthe standing part of the rope, laying them directly around the core,with the strands of the standing part lying in the valleys of the ropelaid within it. This is perfectly feasible but it 5 is a time-consumingoperation compared to the forms described.

While I have described a certain particular construction in which myinvention is incorpo-. rated, I do not desire to be limited to thisparticular embodiment since many changes and modifications may easily bemade without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the following claims.

I claim: 1. A metallic wire rope connection comprising a section of ropehaving a laid portion and a second section having a laid portion and asplayed portion, both laid portions 'being of the same direction of lay,the strands of the splayed portion being of uniform cross sectional areathroughout their length and wrapped around the laid portion of thefirst-mentioned section, said strands lying along and in the valleys ofthe laid portion that they overlie, and said splayed portion beingdirectly connected to the strands of the laid portion of the secondmentioned section and lying entirely outside of the laid portion of thefirst-mentioned section, and a fitting retaining the strands of thesplayed portion in 30 position.

2. A metallic wire rope connection com rising a section of rope having alaid portion and a second section having a laid portion and terminatingin a splayed portion, both laid portions having the same direction oflay, the strands of the splayed portion being of uniform cross sectionalarea throughout their length and wrapped around the laid portion of thefirst mentioned section, said strands lying along and in the valleys ofthe laid portion that they overlie, and said strands being directlyconnected to the strands of ,the laid portion of the second mentionedsection and lying entirely outside of the, strands of the laid portionof the first mentioned section, and a compression fitting pressing saidsplayed strands against the rope they overlie for at least part of theirlength.

3. An eye fora length of laid metallic wire rope comprising a bightformed in the rope, the laid strands of the bight terminating in asplayed portion, the strands of the splayed portion being wrapped aroundthe standing part of the rope and lying in the valleys between thestrands of the portion of the standing part of the rope that theyoverlie and lying entirely outside thereof, and compression fittingspressing said splayed strands against the rope they overlie for at leastpart of their splayed length.

4. An eye for a length of laid metallic wire rope comprising a bightformed in the rope, the standing part of the rope having a splayedportion, the strands of said splayed portion being wrapped around thelaid end of the portion of the rope forming the bight, the strands ofthe-splayed portion lying in the valleys of the laid portion that v theyoverlie, and compression fittings encircling the strands of the splayedportion and pressing them against the laid portion that they overlie.

5. An eye for a length of laid metallic wire rope comprising a bighthaving some of its strands passing from the standing part around the eyein one direction, and the remainder of the strands passing from thestanding part of the rope around the eye in the opposite direction, allof said strands being laid up in the bight substantially as in the 5 8atan part and in the same direction of lay, the 1 tmn t n or the blghtterminating in a splayed por- UNITED Sum PATENTS tion. the splayedportion eingwrapped around Numbe Name Date the standing part of therope, the strands of the 878,916 Wally Feb. 11, 1908 spleyedportionlying along the valleys oi the inr- 5 2,083,369 Greene June 8,193'! tion' of rope they overlie, and compression fittings pressing thestrands of the splayed portion against OTHER CES the portion or the ropethat they overlie. iin smlopedm of nots and arm Rope'wor VINCENT c. J.PE'I'ERSON. y Granmont- 1 Hensel (3rd ed), published by the CornellREFERENCES crrnn Maritime The following references are of record in thefile of this patent:

